Monday, January 29, 2018

What Is cURL?

https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/what-is-curl

We’ll show you, What is cURL? and why would you use cURL? cURL
(Client URL Library) is a computer software project providing a library
and command-line tool for transferring data using various protocols.
cURL is a tool to transfer data from or to a server, using one of the
following supported protocols (DICT, FILE, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER, HTTP,
HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, LDAP, LDAPS, POP3, POP3S, RTMP, RTSP, SCP, SFTP,
SMB, SMBS, SMTP, SMTPS, TELNET and TFTP). The command is designed to
work without user interaction.If you are a Linux command line user, you
probably came across the cURL command. cURL is a command
line tool that most system admins are using on a day to day basis to
perform variety of different tasks. In this article we will explain what
is cURL and why would you want to use it on your Linux VPS.

1. What is cURL?

cURL or Client URL Library is command line tool which is used to
transfer data from one server to another. Basically, the tool is
designed to help you get or send files using URL based syntax and it
works without user interaction. cURL supports wide variety of common
Internet protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, LDAP, LDAPS,
POP3, POP3S, RTMP, RTSP, SCP, SFTP, SMTP, SMTPS, TELNET, TFTP, DICT,
FILE, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER etc.
cURL is free and open source so it is also used in many different
devices including routers, printers, mobile phones etc. Basically, it is
used in thousands of applications and millions of users are using it on
a daily basis without even knowing.

2. Why Would You Use cURL?

cURL allows you to perform multiple file uploads on a single command
line. The user can specify multiple URLs and they will be fetched in the
specified order. Moreover, cURL offers proxy support, file uploads via
FTP, sending requests over HTTP protocol, establishing connections via
SSL, getting and setting cookies, user and password authentication, SMTP
authentication and sending emails, authentication via POP3 and IMAP and
many more. Simply, cURL can be used for everything that is related to
Internet protocol transfers. The full list of features is available here.
cURL uses libcurl, which is a client-side URL transfer library. This
allows you to use cURL with multiple programming and scripting languages
to build amazing applications.

3. Install cURL on a Linux VPS

This will update the package index. Then, run the following command to install cURL:

sudo apt-get install curl

On a CentOS VPS, run:

yum install curl

Once you install cURL on your server you can check our guide about how to use cURL
to perform simple URL checks, download files, get HTTP header
information from a website as well as how to access an FTP server. Also,
we recommend you to check the cURL man page for more usage options and
examples:

man curl

Of course, you don’t have to install cURL on Linux server, if you use one of our Ultra-Fast and Fully Managed Linux VPS Hosting
services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to
install cURL for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your
request immediately. You can always ask our system administrator about
what is cURL? and how to use it.
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